blog « Robin Writes

I’m not going to get into a debate about how Big Five promotes authors and books all over the place and how, if you’re with a small press, you’re out of luck; I’m not going to discuss how Stephen King gets everything he wants in the way of promotion and touring, etc., and all those poor mid-list authors get diddly squat, even from the Big Five.

The fact is that ANY author, unless his name is nationally recognizable, isn’t going to get much in the way of publicity from the Big Five. How does he become recognizable? From publicity and promotion.

You get it, right? Chicken and egg; getting a job with no experience; the anomalies of life.

So let’s forget New York. Let’s forget Random Penguin, et al. We’re going to look at indie and small press because, in reality, that’s where most of us are starting.

Indie and small press publishing have quite a few things in common; the difference is that small press can offer your book a “name,” i.e., a publisher, and that a reputable press won’t cost you any money.

Now, if you SP, you can put any name you want as the “publisher.” Sure. But those who know will STILL know it’s you. It’s not hard to guess, or to find out. Let me be clear: there is nothing wrong with this. If you do SP, you have to do it all—oh, you can pay for help with editing, cover design, etc., but you’re the boss, the chief, the one responsible for how it all turns out. Of course, you get to make all the decisions too. And that includes your marketing strategy. You’re on your own, kiddo.

With a small press, there’s someone (or several someones) to do most of this for you. And a good small press will ALSO handle your marketing and promotion. Some of it. Maybe even most of it. Small press will also hold your hand, pass along opportunities, commiserate with you, answer questions about all kinds of publishing “stuff,” and maybe even other, general “stuff.”

A small press canNOT do it all. Yes, even Big Five expects some author promo and marketing and as long as I brought it up again, the reason Stephen King and his cronies don’t have to do much of anything is because WE ALL KNOW THEM. Be honest, would you run to see SK at an event, or would you blow it off to go see [insert unknown author here]? He doesn’t need to glom onto social media on a daily basis. He doesn’t have to call local bookstores and try to finagle an event. I imagine if he did that, the bookseller would probably keel over . . .

All that said, an author has to bust his own butt to do promo and marketing. Nearly all of them, in fact, and here’s where we leave SK and get into what YOU can do (or not, as the case may be):

DO have a steady presence on social media.

DO NOT disappear for months or weeks or even days.

DO have a plan for posting and make those public, so others can share them.

DO NOT scream “buy my book” at every opportunity.

DO read blogs about writing and marketing.

DO NOT spend money for this.

DO try to arrange your own book events.

DO NOT get pissy when the answer is “no.”

DO keep your reputation in mind when you say or write or do anything in public.

DO NOT moan and groan and get bitchy, in public. Talk to the hand, man.

DO put yourself out there: writers’ groups, conferences, events.

DO NOT continuously talk about yourself, your books, your achievements.

Book sales are a cumulative deal. It’s sales, plain and simple, that grown your audience and your name. It takes time, and it takes effort. And it takes more than one person, usually, to do it all. Now, if you are just one person, SP-ing your books, there is certainly a lot you can do; if you’re with a small press, you still have to do it. Heck, if you’re with one of the Big Five, YOU HAVE TO DO IT.

The advantage of being with a publisher is that you DO NOT have to do it alone. And this is very important:

The more you do, the more your publisher will do.

If you disappear, if you whine about low sales, if you aren’t involved in a writing community, if you continuously bitch about everything, or if you do nothing at all, your publisher is less likely to do anything either. Fact.

People, in general, need to see something over and over before they’ll recognize a product and take action. Your book is a product. You are a product. If they like the book, they’ll buy it. If they like YOU, they’ll buy the book. Truth.

Join a group. Or groups. Even an online one. Set aside a half-hour at least five days a week to do online promo. Pick a couple hours a week to make phone calls or send press releases or make contacts. Pay attention to what’s going on in your community. If you get ten “no, thanks” answers, call ten more event coordinators. Be persistent.

A long time ago, we placed a measly little classified ad for a business we owned. Nothing. Nada. Three months later, the phone rang. A lady had cut out and kept that ad for THREE MONTHS. She hired us, and we got two more clients from her referrals. The whole thing took six months, not six hours.

You can do it.

Yep, as a writer—or a human being—we’re all called upon at times to deal with the pettiness of daily life. Sometimes, that can seem ever present, ever constant, and PUBLIC. The truth is that it’s really none of those things.

A couple weeks ago, I received an email from that strange site, Goodreads. The one that is supposed to be about readers sharing their opinions of books but has, sadly, become a huge advertisement. I was pretty excited a couple years ago, when I finally created an account there. But then . . .

First, Goodreads allowed someone who had NOT read my first book, Reduced, to rate and review it. It was pretty obvious that she hadn’t read the book, and so I complained; I was positive this was someone who had been bashing me personally, on and off, for a few weeks before the book was released.

Goodreads removed the review, but not the rating. I complained a second time when someone marked a book as having one star AND as on his or her “to read” shelf. How can you rate a book if you haven’t read it? Again. Goodreads finally got back to me and said that some members “rated” books as to how BADLY they wanted to read them. Um, okay. Whatever.

Once, I had “librarian” status there; then it disappeared. Goodreads never could tell me why, they just kept saying to re-apply; never heard anything else.

And every time I log on, I have at least 25 invites to “events” in which I have zero interest. Online “events.” Ugh.

So, not a fan.

Back to the email, and the point of this whole thing: Goodreads said that I had to “disclose” that I had published some books, according to the FCC, any time I rated or reviewed them. I had not done so. My bad. If anyone wanted to know WHO I was, they could click on my name and go right to my profile. It says there, in plain English, that I own Rocking Horse Publishing. Duh.

[I could also add a comment about how the US Government concerning itself with book reviews is just plain ridiculous, but that’s probably better left for another day and another topic.]

So this morning I have a message from an author about an anonymous blog post talking smack about RHP and the author and me. It was related to this “disclosure” mess, but led back to a review on Goodreads that was POSTED OVER A YEAR AGO.

The reviewer had said there were “errors.” I asked if she could send me a list, so they could be fixed. Truthfully, there were a few, but mostly it was formatting. The problem was that she didn’t SEND me a list, but added her response to the review thread itself. I was astounded, and pointed out, nicely, that I had expected a PM.

Here’s where it gets weird: someone else recently added to that year-old thread and said I shouldn’t have complained. Complained? I was just surprised that the reviewer had posted publicly instead of PMing me. And again, A YEAR AGO. I’d forgotten all about it.

And THEN—someone anonymously blogged about the thread. What? Zip back up to my title: Idiocy.

Here’s the thing: give it all five minutes of your time and move on. Consider the source—in this case, anonymity, a janky website, and something that happened A YEAR AGO. In Internet time, folks, that’s like a decade.

Oh, and Goodreads? If someone wants to know who I am, tell them to click my name. Look me up on Facebook, or Google, or Twitter, or wherever. And anonymous bloggers? Get a grip; you’re really not that important. Especially when you’re “anonymous,” your Goodreads profile is “private,” and you have nothing better to do than troll around, looking for something to cause trouble.

Why, then, am I writing about you? To show everyone how ridiculous you really are. And to laugh at you. Yes, I said that. And I’ll stand by it. We used to have a word for you, but I’m sure it’s no longer PC to use it: shit-disturber.

Writers, there are a lot of these folks hanging out online—I suspect they used to hang out in their mothers’ basements before the Internet came along. Now we have to deal with them. Yay.